Rising water demands create pressure in Davenport

Sunday

City dealing with problems of growth and an aging system. Other cities, such as Bartow and Lakeland, also face challenges.

DAVENPORT — John Lepley once showed up to a Davenport City Commission meeting wearing a towel.

Lepley wanted to draw commissioners’ attention to problems with the city water system. He said he and other residents were frustrated about inconsistent water pressure in their faucets and showers.

Water will again be a topic of discussion today at 6 p.m. when the City Commission holds a special meeting to review the results of a hydraulic engineering study. The commissioners will consider future steps to ensure a reliable water system in one of the state’s fastest-growing cities.

“I got involved because I kept trying to take a shower and couldn’t” because of low water pressure, said Lepley, leader of Davenport Concerned Citizens. “We’ve been talking this thing to death at the commission for 20 years.”

Lepley, who is married to Mayor Darlene Bradley, said water pressure is now more consistent in his home, but he still hears complaints from other residents in this city of 4,277 about erratic water flow.

The city's problems are not unique. Other cities, such as Bartow and Lakeland, face challenges because of parts of their water systems are old and populations have grown.

In Davenport, sporadic reports from residents about weak water pressure prompted the commission to seek an assessment of the network, said City Manager Amy Arrington. The commission paid Reiss Engineering Inc. of Winter Springs $48,500 to conduct the hydraulic engineering study, and a representative is scheduled to discuss the results at tonight’s gathering, which precedes the bi-monthly commission meeting.

Arrington said commissioners will digest the information before deciding on any future actions to improve the water system.

Maintaining and upgrading ancient water networks is challenge every city faces. Davenport was incorporated in 1915 and some of the water lines still in use are thought to be a century old, said Public Services Director Kelly Callihan.

City-owned Davenport Utilities has 2,800 metered water customers. The network includes 37 miles of pipes ranging in diameter from 1¼ inches to 12 inches fed by two water treatment plants.

Mostly positive

Reiss Engineering sent an 11-page summary of its recent study in advance of tonight’s meeting. The hydraulic modeling study took available information about the city’s water infrastructure and used computer models to test its capability.

The good news: The simulation found the city’s system generally adequate to supply customers and fire crews during peak flow periods.

But the engineers did offer warnings.

“Providing service to new customers from the distribution system on the western and southern portions of the system at the higher elevations will not meet minimum service criteria,” the report said.

The report also said Davenport’s topography presents challenges, with an elevation difference of more than 60 feet between the city’s lowest and highest areas.

And the engineers warned that actual flows might be lower than the model suggests because of corrosion in pipes.

The older pipes are made of ductal iron, Callihan said. Newer pipes are made of a synthetic plastic that doesn’t corrode.

“I think the next step is to do more investigation of these lines to make sure they are OK,” Callihan said.

At some point, he said, the city probably will start thinking about the need to replace some of the pipes because of their age.

The commission set aside about $500,000 in the current budget for maintenance and upgrades to the water system. The city is mainly focused on fixing and replacing water valves, Arrington said.

Callihan said his crews have been making periodic checks of water valves and, in recent months, they replaced eight that were leaking or faulty.

One example of an unforeseen problem emerged a few months ago at the police station. When the toilet in the station was flushed, Callihan said, water pressure elsewhere in the building dropped to almost nothing.

After a lengthy investigation, crews traced the problem to a device intended to prevent backflow into the water supply, Callihan said. The device was stuck in a position that didn’t allow water flow in either direction.

Callihan said an ongoing concern for his department is the paucity of valves, which allow water flow to be blocked. Because the older sections of the city do not have enough valves, he said, crews sometimes must close off water flow to a much larger area than necessary during repairs.

If the commission gives permission after hearing tonight’s report, Callihan said the likely next step would involve having the engineering company determine the best places to install new valves.

While doing that work, crews could inspect water lines to see whether they need replacing, Callihan said.

Lepley, the Davenport resident, said he hopes President Donald Trump’s pledge to commit federal money to repairing the nation’s infrastructure will benefit his city.

Issues not unique

As a city with a relatively ancient pipe network and a surge of new customers, Davenport faces particular stress to its water system. But other cities cope with the same general challenges.

Lakeland started water service 110 years ago, and some of the city’s pipes are probably that old, said Director of Water Utilities Bob Conner.

“At some point, you recognize the issue they have, that your periphery isn’t getting the pressure it needs,” Conner said. “We got there 80 years ago.”

Conner said Lakeland officials have done a good job over the decades in improving the water infrastructure as the city expanded. The network has pipes as large as 36 inches in diameter running to what were once the edges of the city, ensuring adequate supply and pressure.

The city also installed multiple booster pumps on the south side to enhance pressure as pipes run uphill owing to elevation change.

Conner acknowledges that Lakeland has a financial advantage over a city the size of Davenport.

Lakeland Electric, which operates the water supply, has 54,000 metered customers, including businesses. Lakeland accounts for about 23 percent of Polk County’s water use, compared to just less than 1 percent for Davenport.

“I used to work in a smaller utility,” Conner said. “I understand what the finances are like.”

Bartow’s water system includes lines at least 80 years old, said Public Works Director Russ Martin. Some of the older pipes are only 6 inches in diameter, he said, creating challenges for maintaining adequate pressure.

All of the city’s newer pipes are at least 8 inches wide, Martin said. The modern lines are all made of synthetic plastic, as opposed to ductal iron or concrete, materials subject to corrosion.

“We have a couple outlying areas that do have some water pressure problems, mainly because of the smaller lines,” Martin said. “Any cities about our size are constantly dealing with those issues.”

Bartow also has addressed the need to install valves that give crews more precision in shutting off water supplies. Any time crews make repairs to lines, Martin said, there is an opportunity to add valves.

The city established a plan about five years ago to check the existing valves to ensure they are working properly. The city set a goal of completing all those inspections in a decade, Martin said.

Conner said keeping up with the demands of water customers is a never-ending challenge.

“They talk about the infrastructure gap and how hopeless it is,” he said. “It’s like eating an elephant. You do it one fork at a time.”

— Gary White can be reached at gary.white@theledger.com or 863-802-7518. Follow on Twitter @garywhite13.

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